My DIY Cake Stands

I really wanted dramatic cake stands that:
a. didn’t break the bank
b. looked fantastic

I needed 5 and set my budget at under $60 for the whole bunch – virtually impossible, right?

Wrong.

We purchased 5 wooden discs – 1-12″ and 4-10″ – from our local home improvement store. Each cost about $5.

Then we found fence post caps – to serve as the bases. Each cost about $1.20

For the rise, we chose 12″ high carved decorative fence posts – they looked like miniature stair spindles – each costing about $.97.

We grabbed some 1 1/2 inch screws and just screwed the disc to one end of the spindle and screwed the fence post cap to the other end. Once this 5 minute task was completed, we hauled them outside and spray painted them our desired color (ivory).

2 coats later, they were done!

Since we were planning to place food (cake & cupcakes) onto the discs, and they’d been spray painted, I trimmed out some discs of paper to match the card box and guest book.

The final product took under an hour to make, and cost about $42 to make them all (the spray paint added about $6 in cost).

Oh, don’t mind the stupid carrots on our cake, our ridiculous caterer (Miel y Leche) decided to “surprise” us with them. Ugh. at least the cake was delicious.

Want more info/tutorial photos? Comment with interest. I’d be happy to recreate and photograph the process.

Vendor Review – Cake

(note: this review is for dessert only, not for the catered meal)
Vendor grade: B+

It’s no secret that Miel y Leche cupcakes are awesome. I’ve blogged about them a handful of times, and I consider myself lucky that they aren’t easily accessible to me, or I’d probably gain 100 pounds.

We chose 4 flavors for our wedding:

White chocolate with raspberry mousse
Chocolate with peanut butter mousse and chocolate ganache
Carrot cake
White cake with lemon filling and vanilla buttercreme

The cupcakes were delicious and our friends and family went on and on about them.

image from mielyleche.net

The only negative to them is that the staff from Miel y Leche took FOREVER to get them out. We’d told them that we’d like them out by 6:15 — at 6:45, my groom marched into the kitchen at the reception site and brought our cake (carrot) out so we could try to keep on schedule and cut it.

On a similar note, a few of our guests dug into their cupcakes because they asked the MyL staff if they could have one (before we cut ours — grr) – and they said, “I don’t care, it’s not my problem.” Soooo, we started the cutting late and we already had a few guests munching on cupcakes by the time we were able to cut our cake.

Once we cut the cake, it was indeed delicious and moist, but tempered slightly by the staff. One note on our cake: we asked for a carrot cake for our little bride & groom cake – we also asked for “spackled” frosting, and didn’t request any sort of decoration. Imagine my surprise when they showed me our cake and there were frosted carrots all over it. It felt as though it was a mini-birthday cake. I was crestfallen to see all the carrots piped onto the cake, but there was really nothing I could do. Sigh. So if you do work with them, please, please, please make sure they understand that you don’t want any stupid decorations on your cake – and make sure they understand EXACTLY what you want it to look like.

I would recommend Miel y Leche, just consider having them drop off the cupcakes, rather than actually preparing them to be served, and all will be well.

The cost: between $2 and $3 per cupcake, depending on quantity.

The Cupcake Incident

miel_y_leche_limoncello_cupcake

Originally uploaded by KikiLaRae

The GTB and I headed into Letterbox stationary shop to see if they had a certain flavor of cupcake.

(backstory: we’re catering our cake — or cupcakes to be exact — for our wedding with Miel y Leche. We adore Sheela, she’s funny and kind and innovative and willing to go the extra mile to make sure our wedding cupcakes — and display — are nothing short of amazing. We had decided on three flavors, but there’s one left to choose. We just HAVE to try that flavor before we sign on the dotted line. Of course it wasn’t one of the flavors available, so we decided to try 3 other flavors, for fun. The chocolate raspberry is AMAZING. Strawberry coconut is light and delicious. Cherry almond is, as we expected tasty.)

As we stood in line to pay, 2 women in their mid-to-late 60s (clearly from one of the more affluent suburbs, based on the amount of jewelry, designer duds and perfectly coifed hair) were commenting on the cupcakes. One of the women reached her hand out and actually touched one of the cupcakes. If she didn’t walk away with frosting on her finger, I’d be shocked.

This is when the woman working (I’m going to assume it was the owner, Kimberley, though I’ve never actually met her) was like, “Hey, lady, come back here. I can’t sell that cupcake now that you’ve paid for it.”

Older woman #1 (I’ll refrain from the word lady) – “I’ll pay for 1/2 of it and we can share.”

Older woman #2 – glances back and walks away.

Older woman #1 – follows her

Kimberley (I think) – chases them out of the store – “Lady – get back here! You just ruined this cupcake.”

It escalated. I was thinking (hoping) that that stupid older lady would have a cupcake thrown at her head, but it never happened.

Moral of the story: Letterbox is not only awesome, but people who mess with them don’t escape unscathed. This is a business at which I actually want to spend my money!

(image from Cupcake Takes The Cake